Awesome Change Management

A curated list of the best resources about organizational change management for executives, CHROs, and change leaders.

Inspired by awesome lists. Maintained by Rework.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most change initiatives fail. McKinsey estimates that roughly 70% of transformation programs don't achieve their intended goals. But that doesn't mean change is impossible. It means most organizations underinvest in the human side of change. These resources are about fixing that.

Contents

• Articles
• Books
• Videos & Talks
• Tools & Software
• Templates & Frameworks
• Case Studies & Real-World Examples
• Communities & Newsletters
• Rework Resources

Articles

The strongest change management research treats employee adoption and transformation execution as one connected discipline.

• The ADKAR Model Explained - Prosci's complete breakdown of the ADKAR model: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.
• ADKAR vs. Kotter: Which Change Model Should You Choose? - Prosci's honest comparison of two dominant change frameworks and when to use each.
• Kotter's Change Management Theory - Detailed walkthrough of Kotter's 8-step process with modern application examples.
• The Hard Side of Change Management - Harvard Business Review on why soft factors alone don't explain transformation failures.
• Why Transformation Efforts Fail - John Kotter's original HBR article that defined how most leaders think about change.
• Managing Resistance to Change - Prosci's research-backed guide on identifying resistance sources and responding effectively.
• Unlocking Success in Digital Transformations - McKinsey's findings on what separates successful transformation programs.
• Change Management Models: 9 Frameworks Compared - Prosci's comprehensive comparison of Lewin, Kotter, ADKAR, McKinsey 7-S, and more.
• Behavioral Change Strategies That Work - McKinsey on applying behavioral economics to make organizational change stick.

Books

• Leading Change by John P. Kotter - The foundational book on organizational change, built on Kotter's 8-step framework.
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath - The most accessible and practical book on human behavior change at the individual and group level.
• ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community by Jeff Hiatt - The book behind the world's most widely used change management model.
• The Heart of Change by John P. Kotter & Dan Cohen - Kotter's companion book with real stories of emotional-side change management in action.
• Managing Transitions by William Bridges - The distinction between change (the event) and transition (the psychological process) explained.

Videos & Talks

• John Kotter on Leading Change - Kotter explains his 8-step process and why urgency is the most underestimated step.
• The Secret to Change: Switch by Chip Heath - Chip Heath on the elephant-and-rider framework for understanding why change is so hard.
• Prosci Change Management Methodology Overview - Prosci's walkthrough of their three-phase process model and how ADKAR supports it.
• Why Change Management Fails - Practical breakdown of the most common reasons transformation programs don't deliver.
• McKinsey on Organizational Change - McKinsey's ongoing video briefings on people, performance, and change leadership.

Tools & Software

• Prosci's Change Management Portal - Prosci's suite of ADKAR-based assessments, tools, and change practitioner resources.
• WalkMe - Digital adoption platform that guides employees through new software and process changes.
• Whatfix - In-app guidance and change enablement platform for enterprise software rollouts.
• ChangeScout - Change management portfolio tool for tracking impact, readiness, and stakeholder alignment.
• Microsoft Viva Connections - Employee communication and engagement platform built inside Microsoft 365.
• Benevity - Employee engagement and culture platform useful during values-based organizational change.
• Slack - Asynchronous communication platform widely used to manage change communication channels.
• ServiceNow Change Management - Enterprise workflow platform for managing structured IT and organizational change requests.

Templates & Frameworks

These frameworks help leaders test readiness, map stakeholder impact, plan communication, and surface resistance before launch.

• AI Change Management Strategies - How AI tools are changing the practice of change management itself and what leaders need to know.

Case Studies & Real-World Examples

Across these cases, the decisive difference is whether leaders notice warning signals, adapt the operating model, and reinforce the new behavior.

• Kodak - The most cited cautionary tale in change management: Kodak engineers actually invented the digital camera in 1975, but the company's leadership repeatedly suppressed it to protect film revenues. By the time Kodak acknowledged the digital shift was irreversible, it was too late to compete, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after 131 years in business. Source

• Netflix's pivot from DVD to streaming - Netflix notified its DVD subscriber base of a price increase and product split in 2011, triggering massive customer backlash and losing 800,000 subscribers in a quarter. Rather than reversing course, Reed Hastings accelerated the streaming strategy, acknowledged the communication failure publicly, and used the crisis as the forcing function for a complete product identity shift, a change management risk that became the basis for Netflix's dominance. Source

Communities & Newsletters

• ACMP - Association of Change Management Professionals - The global professional body for change management, with the CCMP certification and active chapters.
• Change Management Review - Peer-reviewed articles, practitioner perspectives, and research on organizational change.

Rework Resources

• AI Change Management Strategies - How AI tools are changing the practice of change management itself and what leaders need to know.

Contributing

Know a great change management resource we've missed? Let us know.

Links verified. Covers ADKAR, Kotter's 8 steps, and the human side of organizational transformation.